


As You Like It

by hahahaharlequin



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 06:28:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21031742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hahahaharlequin/pseuds/hahahaharlequin
Summary: Bit by bit I come to hate it,but I come to like it- As You Like It, Eve





	As You Like It

**Author's Note:**

> The spacing, format, ending, and plot is wonky, I'm sorry, I haven't finished in a while. I hope you still enjoy it!

Relationships were difficult, that’s for sure. 

And there was no such thing as a  _ “perfect”  _ relationship. 

Not even the polar opposites that were the orange gremlin and Nekoma’s own genius setter,  _ or _ the responsible and sensible Daichi-san and Nekoma’s only-comparably-slightly-less-unhinged-than-Bokuto-san Kuroo,  ** _or _ ** the Most Sane and Normal couple that was Yamaguchi and Yachi— none of them were perfect. 

They’ve had their fights, too, like any healthy couple— some even, Kei found himself having to console one or the other party, given how emotionally-stunted Tobio usually was. His rare use of aphorisms would visit him in the middle of the night, during his REM sleep. Nights like these, Kei finds himself staring at the ceiling, pondering about whatever cryptic, yet surprisingly applicable  _ words of wisdom  _ Tobio had uttered in his sleep. 

(He almost never fails to text it to both parties of the couple who were currently in the middle of a lovers’ spat, whatever time that may be.) He likes to think he’s done God’s work, and he deserves a couple more hours of sleep before he had to wake up for classes, no thanks to Tobio’s ridiculous sleep talking. 

Back when they were in high school, sure, they’d gone on overnight training trips, and have had away games, but never had he seen, nor  _ heard  _ of Tobio’s sleep talking. It was a good thing, though, because if Kei had to be roused at ass-o’clock in the middle of the night due to his teammate’s sleeping habits, he’d have smothered him with his own pillow. 

Nowadays, Kei would just ignore them, and go back to sleep—  _ after  _ writing them down, and casually bringing it up during breakfast. The way Tobio’s face contorts to confusion was a delight, so early in the day. It gives Kei that small skip in his step on his way to his lectures. 

They were well into the second term of their sophomore year in college, and so far so good, he and Tobio had been going steady and strong, and Kei was so close to letting out a sigh of relief. But he slumps into his desk chair, head lolling back as he recalled one time he  _ almost _ dumped Tobio— 

* * *

It was their first week moving in together, and their first year of college. They were excited, and were more than enthused to join their respective universities’ volleyball teams. They’d both decide to move in together in the city, after Kei’s mum had suggested it to them, as a means to split costs, and still get to see each other despite choosing to go to different universities. 

Tobio had gotten a scholarship grant to the same university Hinata was also invited to, while Kei had been accepted into a university with a wide variety of pre-med courses. Despite their conflicting schedules, with Kei choosing to take most of his classes in the morning, and Tobio who was undeterred with his choice of taking the midday classes, they still make sure to spend their free time together, sharing meals or doing homework.

That was, until one day, Kei comes home from his first class for a two-hour break before his next class, and he comes home to Tobio just waking up, and was blindly rummaging through the cupboards while mumbling about breakfast. 

Watching the scene unfold before him, Kei made sure to keep quiet, so as not to startle Tobio from his sleep-induced wandering. He slowly removes his coat, and holds onto it against his chest instead of hanging it up, which could make any small sound that Tobio was sure to pick up, no matter how in too deep he was in his state. 

His boyfriend lets his face make a wide, silly grin that Kei was sure he’s only seen when Tobio was watching cooking shows, he was digressing, and was overly  _ fond  _ of his boyfriend, now that he thought about it— but he could never tell it to his face, as he’d rather the ground swallow him whole before he would have to do so. 

In Tobio’s hand was a box of cereal, Lucky Charms, which Kei had to wrestle Tobio to let go of, and would have to shower him with kisses in exchange for not getting a second box, every time they went grocery shopping. He had just successfully, and spill-freely poured enough cereal into a bowl, that Tobio managed to find, even in his bleary sight. 

Chest swelling with pride, Kei watches Tobio stumble towards the fridge, where he leans down to reach for the milk, and the…  _ ice box? _

He was sure they had run out of orange juice yesterday, so what was Tobio planning to do with—  _ holy shit—  _

“Hey! Tobio, wake up! Oi, King, what the hell, you’re dumping ice cubes into your cereals, are you still asleep?” He charges toward Tobio, just as he was about to put three ice cubes into the bowl. “Oi, wake up! Get ahold of yourself, King!” Kei hits Tobio on the topside of his head, which was  _ VERY EFFECTIVE  _ as Tobio sits up straight,  _ but  _ drops the ice cubes in the bowl, still, and Kei feels squeamish.

He sits across Tobio, who is only starting to collect himself. He’s yawning, and shoveling spoonfuls of cereal, milk, and the occasional ice cube into his mouth. Kei was too stunned to speak, yet he must have had even the slightest fetish for the grotesque, since he was sitting there, marvelling at how Tobio was able to stomach that horri- _ bowl  _ of madness. 

He stopped eating breakfast with Tobio since then, and refused to buy cereals for Tobio when he’d run out. 

This goes on until one evening, they had just finished dinner and were lounging in front of the TV, lazily draped over each other as they watched reruns of Masterchef Australia, when Tobio tilts his head to the side, sporting a pensive look on his face. Which only spelled trouble for Kei.

“What is it now?” He asks, a heavy sigh escaping him. He leans back into the couch, stretching his arms over his head. 

“I remember eating cereal with ice cubes because one day, our fridge wasn’t cooling, and I liked eating cereal with cold milk, so I put some ice cubes in my bowl, and then—“ A yawn breaks his train of thought. He doesn’t follow it up, but instead blinks away tears that were Tobio’s sign that he was getting drowsy. 

Kei blinks once. Twice. He sighs.

The next morning, before heading back home for his infamous two-hour break that he lords over Tobio and their friends, he runs to the grocery store and rushes to the cereal aisle, reaching for Tobio’s Lucky Charms, and straight down to the dairy aisle, where he grabs for a carton of milk. He hastily pays for his items, frowning a little at the receipt, but not so much as when he’d let Tobio’s sleepy slurs hit him. 

He reckons he can live with whatever disgusting eating habits Tobio had, if the smile Tobio sends his way when they settle in their seats was a permanent addition to their lives. 

_ And,  _ if that was the last of Tobio’s atrocious habits.

_ Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. _

* * *

Kei had officially banned Tobio from the kitchen, after the ice cube incident, and after coming home to the fire alarm blaring, coming from their shared apartment, just as he had gotten off volleyball practice. Their landlady was already there— kind and motherly, often babying him and Tobio since they were her youngest tenants— scolding Tobio who was sitting formally, and his head hung low. She lets Kei take over the berating. 

Safe to say, no more almost-fires have happened since that night, as Kei himself would whisk some egg rolls for Tobio in his stead. He was happy just to have them (and Tobio’s child-like delight every time Kei would cook for him made his chest feel like it’s swarmed with butterflies). 

But kitchen and food duties aside, Tobio was surprisingly good at household chores like doing the laundry and folding them. It always amazed Kei, and he was sure the dumbstruck look on his face every time Tobio was doing that one-move shirt folding technique looked stupid, if Tobio’s giggling was any indication. 

He enjoyed the simple lifestyle he and Tobio shared as much as he enjoyed slamming the door on Yamaguchi’s and Hinata’s faces every so often that they visited on the weekends. 

* * *

Sure, Kei had  _ loved  _ riling His Majesty up back when they were in high school. Always teasing, and calling him names just to get a rise out of him. He liked how the airhead  _ supposedly  _ “genius” setter’s face would contort into frustration, often sporting a pout, or the usual scrunch of his eyebrows, looking away as he tightens his hold onto his water bottle, knuckles turning white as he did so. 

But seeing as how Kageyama Tobio’s perpetual frown could even turn upside down, he knew. 

He knew he was done for. 

And,  _ that  _ was how Kei found himself sitting across Kageyama Tobio at a cafe, poring over class notes. Hinata, Yachi, and Yamaguchi had long gone and left the two of them there for tutoring. Or rather, Yamaguchi had been sending winks down his way, and a couple nudges from both Yachi and Hinata, though the manager had been more subtle than the two imps. 

The blockhead in question was busying himself with his notes, which was what the other three were supposed to be doing, but instead they had been enjoying their cream sodas and fries. He was a bit glad that at least  _ one  _ of the idiots was paying attention, though he noticed Kageyama would refuse asking for help, and would rather knit his eyebrows together, hoping the answers of the universe would come to him if he scowled hard enough at his worksheets. 

“Your brain fried yet?” Kei asks as he dunks a crispy fry into his cream soda. He’d picked up the habit from his older brother, Akiteru, whom Kei thought was the coolest. 

He was still cool, at best, whenever he’d drop by for a visit, or for the holidays. Kei bites the fry where the ice cream is attempting to drip onto the table. He can feel eyes on him, so he looks up, and sees Kageyama watching him with an affronted expression on his face, as if he’d just witnessed Kei eat a whole infant. 

Not that Kei would ever, despite how evil he’d make himself seem to other people— 

“What’s your problem?” 

Kageyama’s eyes follow Kei’s hands. “What are you doing?” Kei scoffs, dipping another fry into his ice cream.

“What are  _ you  _ doing?” Kageyama counters him as he lowers the notebook he was reading. “Why are you—?” 

Kei was tired from having to teach a couple of idiots, so he knows he deserved the ice cream and fries. What he  _ didn’t  _ deserve was the blatant disrespect his comfort food was getting. 

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.” Kei purposefully said that, knowing Kageyama wouldn’t be aware of such proverb. 

He laughs in the setters face as he holds eye contact with him, even as he dips two fries into the ice cream, then extending his hand toward Kageyama, who so  _ obviously  _ backed further away into his seat in the booth they were occupying. 

“Come on, now, King. ’Tis but this lowly plebe’s treat,” he challenges, inching his hand forward, almost thrusting his hand into the other’s face. When, Kageyma takes a shy and terrified bite, catching the fries with his own hands as Kei retracted his. 

“I wouldn’t let anyone or  _ anything _ poison my Dear King, now, would I?” Kei laughs to himself, as he watched how slowly Kageyama was chewing, then swallowing as if he had just taken a dry pill. 

“It’s…okay, I guess.” Kageyama says slowly, taking a large gulp from his glass of water. 

“You say that, but your expression says otherwise!” Kei laughs— a  _ real  _ laugh that he hasn’t heard from himself in  _ years,  _ so he mentally commends the idiot for having accomplished such a feat, and rewards him by pushing his cream soda and fries between them. 

He even goes so far as taking the notebooks away from Kageyama and sets them aside. “You can take a break, King.” He tells him. He feels a smile bloom on his face, mirroring the one the setter gives him, along with an eager nod. 

Kei, then, wouldn’t have known how much he’ll come to like that smile.

* * *

Despite Tobio’s complete kitchen ban, there was still one kind of food he can make that only required plugging in the sandwich-maker, and holding down the cover— a task he can easily accomplish, much to Kei’s chagrin. 

Kei, like every other denizen of the mortal realm, loves grilled cheese sandwiches. At home, they have bags and packages of at least five kinds of cheeses for that matter— and, also because Tobio  _ loves  _ asking Kei to put cheese on pretty much everything, and Kei can’t help but indulge him.

Ever since Tobio brought home the sandwich-maker his mum had given to him from when he visited home one time, he had elected himself to making their sandwiches to bring to classes or matches. Kei appreciated the gesture.

That is, until, he received the sandwich of this nightmares:

Kei’s college volleyball team had a match, and Tobio couldn’t come with to watch and show support, since he had an important exam on a major subject that day. Kei understands, and they share a good luck kiss before he left the apartment that day, head light, heart full of love, and he’s pumping with adrenaline. Yamaguchi had texted him the night before that he could go, and he was bringing Hinata and Yachi along to cheer for him. 

He grins as the thought of playing for his team as his old friends watch him, that he absently accepts a sandwich bag Tobio hands him as he steps out the threshold.

_ “For after the game, I love you,”  _ he had said, just before closing the door, and snapping Kei awake. He heads out to his college where the game will be held at in record time.

🌜👑

The game went fairly well, as much as he had expected college matches would be. He’s in his second year, so he’s lucky to be part of the starting line-up already, though he had been on-call for pinch serves and was highly regarded since he was an alumnus of Karasuno High School. 

He grins smugly at the thought. 

Their opponent was a known fierce team, with the majority of their team on the tall end— quite tall for Kei’s tastes,  _ too tall _ — but he scoffs at the fear bubbling in him. He had already faced off with different kinds of blockers his entire high school career, some kookier than the last. This team’s only advantage was that they were in college, and had larger builds than high schoolers. 

They posed a great threat to lean and lanky, beanpole Kei, who hasn’t yet built up any sort of vanity muscles. Tobio was shaping up quite well, with his toned arms and just the right amount of bulk, and his shoulders had grown wide and broader over the years. Kei pretends he’s not jealous, but he can’t deny adoring him even more so. 

It was a trivial game, and each set seemed to last longer than the last one. 

After three whole sets, and practically pushing themselves to their limits, pulling themselves up from the floor, Kei’s team wins. Their opponents didn’t look too disappointed, but instead greeted the winners with tired smiles, thanking them for a good game, despite it taking them longer than usual. 

Kei’s team reminded him of Karasuno High’s, that’s why he exerts as much effort as he can for them. And, Tobio would always cheer on him, even if they were on opposing teams— and watching the excited glint in Tobio’s eyes on the court were always a spectacle. how graceful Tobio’s moves were, how fluid he was, like a fish in its natural habitat. 

Kei lived for that. 

That, and because Tobio’s grilled cheese sandwiches for after the games were always a delight to the senses. He’s never told it to his face, of course, but he secretly enjoys them, as much as he did brandishing it to his teammates faces. 

“There goes Tsukishima again with his after-game sandwiches!” Their libero says, pointing towards Kei as he pulls out his Tupperware. Tobio had insisted on using them instead of sandwich bags for a specific reason:

“UGH! I’m so jealous!” Ushio, one of their wing spikers say. “And they’re  _ dinosaur-shaped  _ too!" The cries of anguish just made Kei's sandwich a delicacy of sorts. Smugly, he takes one dinosaur-shaped sandwich out, and takes a bite. 

The salty, and tangy taste of cheese coated his tongue. He had half a mind to let out a groan of delight, so he settles with a hum instead. He takes another bite, and that's when things get--

"Oh,  _ sweet!" _ Ushio, exclaims. He's pointing at Kei's sandwich again, where chocolate starts oozing out of the sandwich. 

"Grilled cheese  _ and chocolate  _ sandwiches? Dude! If you don't marry that person after you graduate, I'm taking them for myself!" He starts ranting, while the rest of the team hit him on the head for being insensitive. 

It was moments like this when Kei forgot about his confusion, and short-lived anguish towards Tobio's Grilled Cheese Sandwich of Nightmares. He liked bragging about Tobio more. 

But he didn't forget to berate Tobio about it when he got home later that day, though the sheepish smile Tobio sent his way kept the frustration down.

And the apology kiss was even better than any grilled cheese sandwich in the world.

🌜👑

Maybe one of Kei's faults that he would openly admit to, was kicking Tobio out of bed, so he can procure his newly bought glow-in-the-dark dinosaur figures, and place them under the comforter, so Kei can take peeks at them.

They always bring out the child in Kei.

Though having gotten kicked out, it's already come so natural and automatic for him already, that Tobio just pulls out one of their spare futons and lays it beside their bed. Even if Kei slept on the inner side of the bed, he would stretch an arm out, and locks fingers with Tobio until they both fell asleep.

Tobio often woke up with a few dinosaurs fallen atop his chest, but at least Kei was closer to the edge of the bed now, and he was nose-deep under the blankets.

With peaceful mornings like this, Kei couldn't ask for more.

But, it ends when Tobio's alarm starts ringing.

* * *

The first time it happened was the first day of their final exams, in their first year of college. For someone as blockheaded as Tobio, his fastidiousness had come as a surprise for Kei. Sure, he was disciplined enough to clean up after himself, but not to  _ this  _ extent:

That morning was the second day of Tobio's finals, and the first one for Kei. His exams don't start until noon, but Tobio's were in an hour from when he woke up. He knows he can still sleep in, he was sure of it, until a haunting, sucking, and ridiculously annoying sound roused him.

_ "Hey, King!"  _ The nickname had slipped his mouth in his annoyance. "Are you trying to kill me?" 

The noise dies down for one second, then it starts right back up. Instead of falling right back into bed, the sounds grew louder and louder, until Kei was sure Tobio was vaccuuming just outside the bedroom. 

"Oi, King!" He yells over the loud noise, but doesn't so much as get a response from said royalty. Kei spends the next ten minutes with his and Tobio's pillows sandwiching his head in an attempt to block out the noise. 

When the vaccuuming died down, Kei notices the time on the wall clock, saying it was half an hour from Tobio's exams. But said guy was nowhere to be found. 

Out of curiosity, Kei gets up to look for him. With his dinosaur hood-blanket wrapped around his shoulders and the hood pulled on, he stalks out of the bedroom, and immediately finds Tobio with his back turned towards him, wiping down their bookshelf, and picking out books, and wipes them with a rag. 

With enough sleep in his system, Kei can figure out that Tobio was  _ cleaning.  _

_ Why in the world was his boyfriend cleaning when it's less than an hour until his exams? _

He thought to himself, but came to no conclusions. He reckons it was just one of the King's weird habits like the ice cubes in milk, or chocolate in grilled cheese sandwiches.

So he heads back to bed, and buries himself under their blankets, with the sounds of Tobio fumbling around in his haste lulling him to sleep.

🌜👑

_ "I stress-clean,"  _ Tobio is blowing steam from the rim of his cup, eyes looking straight at Kei, whose hand stops just in front of his mouth. The piece of cake dangling precariously on the fork drops onto the table, which Tobio  _ tsks  _ at.

They were currently at the café they frequented, idling the time away, as they both were already finished with their exams. 

"You,  _ huh?"  _ Kei asks dumbly, cleaning up the dropped cake since Tobio was staring daggers at it, eyes flitting between Kei's face and the fallen cake. Tobio even started drumming his fingertips anxiously on the table top as Kei wiped up the cake.

_ Huh? _

"Are you...perhaps,  _ finicky,  _ when it comes to messes?" Kei concludes, drawing it all from the reactions his boyfriend was making as he cleaned up. His eyebrows would scrunch up while Kei was wiping the table with a back-and-forth motion, in his attempt of picking everything up. 

Tobio also exhaled heavily when Kei had gotten just one paper towel, which somehow amused him to an extent, until he's finished wiping, and with no sign of dropped cakes in sight.

Kei throws the used paper towel to the corner of their table, and gets a whine of anguish from Tobio. "What?" He asked.

Instead of answering, Tobio takes the used paper towel and tucks it under his saucer, visibly calming down as he did so.

🌜👑

"Am I  _ what?"  _ Tobio asks, his face contorting into that angry-confused face Kei loved.

Kei smirked, chuckling to himself at the familiar scene before him. "Sometimes I forget you're not very good with  _ big words,"  _ he teased him, earning him that signature pout of Tobio's he could just lean in and kiss away.

"Finicky means you're meticulous over something," Kei explains, and slowly, the creases in his boyfriend's eyebrows unfurl. "In your case, you're finicky over cleanliness and tidying up." He points at Tobio, "and when your anxiety levels spike up, so does your finickiness." 

The pout is still there, but the confused expression is replaced by a blank, complacent face, which meant he was thinking over the new information he was presented.

"Get it?" Kei instinctively says, just like they used to, when he would tutor his Majesty and the Royal Court Jester back in high school. 

"Yeah, yeah. I get it," Tobio huffs, clearly  _ not getting it,  _ at least according to Kei's 'Guide to Understanding Neanderthals and his Boyfriend Kageyama Tobio'. But he smiles nonetheless.

"I'm fine with you cleaning, sure, but next time," Kei leans in, propping his chin up with the heels of his hands, "wake me up before you do." He said, smirking, that turned into a soft smile at his boyfriend's eager nod.

"Maybe I can help you instead of sleeping in, too." He adds, and he swears Tobio's eyes have never been shinier than they were at that moment. The smile playing on his lips were brighter than the sun itself, despite his failed attempts at keeping it to himself. 

Kei was glad that he was able to resolve that,  _ and  _ feels like he's saved an entire nation in his past life to be graced by his King's smile.

* * *

Sure, relationships aren't all rainbows and sunshine; there were times he and Tobio would get on each other's nerves, sometimes ending up with someone walking out, but they always come back in the morning, after they've cooled down, and reconcile over breakfast.

There are things the other does that they cannot stand, but bit by bit, once they've met each other halfway, they come to like each other's quirks.

_ "Until we can understand each other,"  _ Kei often finds muttering to himself, then later in their relationship, he can hear it from Tobio, too.

And maybe, that's when Kei can surely tell their relationship was perfect in its own way. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I've written this for MONTHS, and I just finished it now djdbsjsj leave comments or sumn please and thank
> 
> Tobes stress-cleaning came from  THIS VIDEO  of Ishikawa Kaito (Tobio's seiyuu) doing exactly THAT


End file.
